I played the Sega version through Disney Classic Games on Switch.

Aladdin is one of my favorite movies. It's not in the top ten, but it's close. I was super excited to get this but at the same time I was a bit skeptical of it being a movie adaptation. It surprised me with it's fun levels and the charm of this world. It's not a special platformer at all, but it is a fun Aladdin adaptation that I'd recommend to fans of the original movie. The gameplay is good for what it is, the attacks are creative, I like the slot machine, and the boss fight is just great. It's a fun platformer that's under an hour that I'd probably return to in the future.

GRADE
B+

EA really messed up here. I really need to play the older two Battlefront games someday which are supposed to be better and I sure hope so. This game isn't good. The gameplay is extremely rough making it difficult to play, and not in the fun way. There is a bit of lagging in it and it takes WAY too long to load. There aren't enough fun modes in it and the way they developed the style of this game and the various modes wasn't great. The graphics and sound are stunning and the score is amazing as it takes music from John Williams original movie score so at least there's that. It's not entirely terrible, but I wouldn't recommend this game.

I was enthusiastic about playing this one because I thought Miles was great in the first Spider-Man PS game. This one didn't disappoint! I want to get the negative stuff out first. I thought the beginning of the game was a little slow. I thought the way they were setting up the game and introducing us to the characters and story, it felt more like the rough draft of the beginning and just left it at that. Then you have the villain reveal. I don't mind who the villain turns out to be, but the timing of the reveal was way too soon. I know that after the reveal the rest of the game is dependent on the reveal, but I felt they could've made the game longer to pace all of that better. I get it's more of an expansion than a sequel to Marvel's Spider-Man, but I think that this could've been released as a sequel instead and made the story better. Besides that this game is MARVELous. The gameplay in this is improved upon the previous Spider-Man game and I thought the venom powers were a nice addition. I thought they did a nice job of growing Miles' character throughout the game as this is an origin story for Miles as he goes on his first solo mission as Spider-Man. I think Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse did a better job with Miles, but that's a solo movie without having a previous game already setting up the character like this one did. I think the enemies are all well developed even if they feel VERY similar to the "Demons" and "Sable" from the first game. I really enjoyed this one and I am super excited for the next PlayStation Spider-Man game!

GRADE
A-

(Played on PC but I'll mark as NES anyway)

A truly amazing platform game! It's very short, but it's great!

GRADE
A

This would easily be a five star game but there were just two major things that were wrong with it. There were no minor issues as all the levels were perfect (except two or three) and the gameplay was smooth (with the exception of one thing). The jetpack mechanics were just awful in two of the levels. It's in the Cortex boss fight that I'll get to later, but it was smoother in that. In the individual levels, it was awful. Everything is tightly packed together and the jetpack was all wonky. Because of that it was much harder than it needed to be. The other thing is the Cortex boss fight. It was so anticlimactic! All of the other bosses were harder than the FINAL boss. He only has three lives and the fight doesn't get increasingly difficult. He could've shot stuff at you or evolved into a mega robot of some sorts! Other than that, this game is perfect. The game improves on much of the first game with the coherence, level design, and boss fights (except the finale). The game flows better in my opinion since the levels feel more related to each other than the first. The first game changes rapidly from bridge to jungle to factory, while this game gives you time to get there. There are some jumps from desert to arctic, but there's less of that in this than the first game. It also has more imaginative levels with bee obstacles, night lights, and the idea of a jetpack. The boss fights are also more creative in this game as you do more of a variety of stuff than jumping to certain spots like in the first game. This is a phenomenal platform game that I'm willing to play again. It makes me really want to play the original games.

GRADE
A-

I was hoping this could be an A+ if it fixed my issues with Crash 2. It did. The gameplay was smoother in some places and I thought the finale gave a challenge and the ending didn't feel anticlimactic because of that. It also keeps the charm that Crash 2 had and barely changed a thing. Then why isn't it a five and why don't I prefer this over the second one? It's because there are too many gimmick levels, some with wonky gameplay and controls and the actual platforming levels are a bit too easy and bland. I have no problem with the gimmick levels as it adds variety to the game to make things more interesting, but I feel like with the boat levels with Coco and the scuba levels, the controls were wonky. The scuba diving was a bit slow where I would have the joystick all the way right and it would take Crash forever to go right and I'd die. The same goes with the boat where the steering was way too sensitive. I'd have to keep turning back for boxes and the crystal because the steering would go way left or right with a slight movement of the joystick. I did enjoy them, but they could've been improved. I very much liked the motorcycle and plane levels though as they ran very smoothly and were way more fun than they should've been. When it comes to the actual platform levels though, they were a bit inconsistent in execution and difficulty. They all ran smooth though. My problem was that it would go from a hard level to an especially easy one and then some of them would be pretty bland. I still had fun with most of them though. I also think this game has the most creativity with the worlds you go to. They introduce the time warp thing where you can go to so many different places. It's a phenomenal idea which creates scenic levels and adds more fun to it making some of them slightly less bland. I also enjoyed the plot of this game which was original and the whole Uka Uka plotline was interesting. My biggest issue is the way they set up the game. I didn't really care for the layout of the main world you're in with everything being separated like that. Crash 2's layout was great, while this felt like a step down. I think if this was slightly more organized, had smoother controls, and more exciting levels, this could've been the best because they already had a 4.5 game for me. But in the end they didn't have that which made me deduct a few points. It's a lot of fun and my second favorite of the original trilogy. I'd recommend playing these games. Time to go play the originals!

GRADE
A-

An N Sane collection of three wonderful games. The graphics are incredible and the gameplay is smooth in most of the levels. Get this package. (I reviewed the games in whole so this was short).


GRADE
A-

✅76%

I had never heard of A Plague Tale until the game awards, and since Requiem was nominated, I decided to give this a try. I went in blind and wasn't disappointed with the end product. It was able to capture the atmosphere of this time period so well to create a very immersive experience. It wasn't afraid to get graphic and show the horrors of what was going on along with the plague, as you go through a battlefield and walk over dead knights or see walls of pigs. You go through this with our two leads in Amicia and Hugo, and they were solid protagonists. The sibling dynamics are great and the pacing of the relationship building is perfect. The performances are probably the weakest part as it felt like they were just reading off lines. The adults were much better than the kids, as expected, but the difference was drastic.

The story is well-written, but did the gameplay follow through as well? In ways yes, and in ways no. The combat system is both good and bad. I like the upgrading and the materials are cool, but the sling and open combat didn't work the best for me. The gameplay itself is great, but sometimes it feels a bit generic. It just fell short of being something unique, and I feel like it was pretty close to reaching that mark. The puzzles were interesting, as most were great but there were like two or three that frustrated me. A Plague Tale: Innocence creates a chilling, immersive atmosphere and has a strong story to go with it. The combat system and acting were the weakest points, but the gameplay was still solid and created a good experience.

The game has extremely good graphics and it has a cool premise behind it, but if you don't have PS Plus to play online, all you can do is boring training and the repetitive, lackluster campaign. I don't have PS Plus and none of the games I play have anything I'm dying to play online, so I see no point of getting it. Sure, for 60 dollars for the year you get free games, but for the whole year there's probably only 2 games I have interest in and it's under 60 bucks to get the disc, so I see no point for my sake. The campaign in this is extremely boring. The dogfights were awesome at first, but it gets way too repetitive because there is no variety in the missions. It's shoot tie fighters, shoot big ship, shoot everything every single mission, so it just gets really boring and there isn't a reason to keep on going. The story is also not executed in the best way possible which could've made this game more entertaining to play. The cast does a poor job with absolutely zero emotion in these characters. It sounds like they are doing bad voices and reading the lines for the first time in a monotone voice while doing these cringy voices for these characters. The characters are also badly written and I care for none of them. I'd prefer to go Nathan Drake on these tie fighters and go at them alone instead of with this emotionless, boring squadron. This game is not good, but at least it's slightly better than Battlefront (reboot). I do not recommend this game. I might try to finish the campaign some day, but I'll see how long I can go without picking this up to see if I have any desire to play this before I plan on trading it in.

GRADE
C

👍67%

New Super Mario Bros U. is a game I'm mixed on. I enjoyed the game and it does some really cool things like the Van Gogh inspired level and the final boss was cool, but at its core it's just another copy and paste New Super Mario Bros game. The world map is the same it's been in the past 3 games and doesn't try anything really new in it's level design. I do appreciate the snow level being set at night with the aurora borealis background though. That was a nice twist on the world. That was really one of the first times I liked an ice themed platforming world, as I found it to be the most unique in the game. It is able to more unique things than New Super Mario Bros. 2 and I appreciate it for that. I think if 2 was more of a copy of the DS one, this is more of a copy of the Wii one. I think graphically this is the best in the New Super Mario Bros. series and some of the levels like the Van Gogh one show how good the graphics really were. I feel like if there was more effort put into this instead of it being a copy paste entry, this could've been something really special. It shows quite a few flashes of something really cool, but never quite gets there from how safe it plays it. It is an entertaining playthrough and if you like this series I'd definitely give it a play, but at its core it's really just another safe entry.